School sex education guidance must be updated to reflect the digital age

Sex education in schools must be brought up to date

SIR – As a new term begins, we are concerned that many schools are no better equipped to teach sex and relationships education (SRE) to a good standard than in previous years. Ofsted inspections have found that SRE needs improving in a third of schools.

Schools have out-of-date guidance, published 13 years ago by the Department for Education and Employment. This pre-dates the Sexual Offences Act 2003, the repeal of Section 28 of the Local Government Act and the 2010 Equalities legislation, which requires schools to take account of gender equality when teaching young people about non-violent, respectful relationships. The Government’s SRE guidance is also behind the times on technology and safeguarding, with no reference to addressing online safety, “sexting” or pornography.

Parents want SRE to be addressed in schools but need to know what their children will be taught at different ages. Teachers would welcome this, too, when planning the curriculum; they are often anxious about what can be included.

The Government says that its ambition is for “all children and young people to receive good-quality SRE”, but has not said what that includes or how it will be achieved. If the Government believes SRE, including the teaching of “sexual consent”, is important, then it is worthy of up-to-date guidance that all schools should be required to put into practice.

We call on the Government to work with professionals to produce this guidance. This would send out a message to schools that SRE is an absolute requirement, and that high standards must be met.

Martin Pendergast Chair- The Centre for the Study of Christianity & Sexuality (CSCS)

Will Gardner CEO, Childnet

Ruth Sutherland CEO, Relate

Thomas Lawson CEO, Leap - Confronting Violence

Kath Broomhead Development Worker, Parent to Parent

Michael Bell Director, MBARC

Lesley Kerr-Edwards Director, Image in Action

Penny Mansfield Director, One Plus One

Lorraine Lalor Co-Director, Triangle

Maggie Walker CEO, ASDAN

Jason Royce Director of Romance Academy

Terry Sanderson President of the National Secular Society

Ruth Hilton Chair, Jewish Action and Training (for Sexual Health)

Helen Lansdown CEO, Deafax

John Rees Chair, The National PSE Association for Advisors, Inspectors & Consultants (NSCoPSE)

Jenny Rowley Chair, National Health Education Group (NHEG)

Jeremy Todd Chief Executive, Family Lives

Rev Jane Fraser Manager, Bodysense

Luke Roberts National Coordinator, Anti-Bullying Alliance

Emily Kerr-Muir Campaign Director, Life in My Shoes, Body and Soul

Sexual Health Education Unit; Health & Care Worcestershire

The British Youth Council

SIR – The campaign by Claire Perry, the Conservative MP, to teach schoolchildren about the negative impact of online pornography, seems a timely idea (report, September 3). However, this depends on who teaches it, and what they teach.

If the charities to which she refers are pro-family and pro-child, this is good, but not if they are the same “experts” who have succeeded in raising the rate of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases by delivering sex education unjudgmentally, with the approach that an activity is all right if that is how the individual feels. They sideline the fact that under-age sex is illegal. Will they teach children that pornography, which is legal, is always wrong?

Mrs Perry has done sterling work in informing the public of the dangers of pornography to children. Surely it is better to restrain the perpetrators than to teach the victims how to “manage the damage”?